"In the second
part of her examination of EU deals with third countries to stop
migration, Frances Webber examines the closure of Africas
borders against migration, demanded by the EU as the price for
development, trade and aid."

EU-GREECE: NGO letter to Mr. Jean-Claude
Juncker, President European Commission and Mr. Ioannis Mouzalas,
Minister of Migration Policy, Greece: Letter to Commission: Joint
Action Plan on EU-Turkey Statement and resumption of Dublin transfers
to Greece (pdf).
Signed by ECRE, Greek Council for Refugees, AITIMA and Solidarity
Now. Includes Annex on: Observations and concerns on the Joint
Action Plan on the implementation of certain aspects of the EU-Turkey
Statement and the Recommendation on the resumption of returns
to Greece under the Dublin III Regulation:

"In its fourth
report on the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement, published
on 8 December 2016, the European Commission has suggested a series
of measures aiming at increasing the number of returns from Greece
under this highly controversial and contested arrangement.

The undersigning organisations
are particularly alarmed by the suggestions made in the Joint
Action Plan elaborated by the EU Coordinator together with the
Greek authorities on the implementation of certain aspects of
the EU-Turkey Statement.

We believe that many
of the proposed measures will result in depriving asylum seekers
and migrants arriving on the islands from essential procedural
safeguards to protect them from refoulement, from enjoying the
right to family life and the right to asylum under Article 18
of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and eventually undermine
the rule of law."

"The UN refugee
agency and the EUs aid department have been accused by
other aid groups of mismanaging a multimillion-pound fund earmarked
for the most vulnerable refugees in Europe, leaving thousands
sleeping in freezing conditions in Greece.....

The EU aid department,
known as Echo, has given UNHCR more than 14m since April
to help prepare roughly 50 refugee camps for the winter in Greece,
where an estimated 50,000 mainly Syrian refugees have been stranded
since the adoption of new European migration policies in March.
A further 24m has been given to UNHCR for other projects.

Both organisations stand
accused by other aid groups of squandering this money, after
failing to properly winterise or evacuate dozens
of camps before snow fell in Greece earlier in December."

A newreporton the situation of refugee women in Greece says
inadequate protection and promotion of womens health,
safety, and rights has been a concerning feature of the crisis
and mentions gender-based violence, access to sexual and reproductive
health services as well as womens participation and empowerment
in local communities as the most pressing issues..."

101 refugees arrive
in Greece

"101 refugees arrived
in Greece in the past 24 hours until 7:30AM according to official
numbers, including 81 on Lesvos."

Bulgaria: 1,647 refugees
have left Bulgarian refugee camps in November and close to 600
people left in the two first weeks of December, according to
BalkanEu

"In recent weeks,
the situation has deteriorated for refugees in Bulgaria, with
police storming the Harmanli camp after riots, severely beating
men and teenage boys. Bordermonitoring Bulgaria says all closed
and open centres are still overcrowded, while the Bulgarian Helsinki
Committee also reports on serious human rights violations by
police as well as on pushbacks to Turkey."

Italy: 7 bodies recovered
in the Mediterranean

"France
24 says seven
bodies were recovered from or around stricken migrants boats
in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, while 300 people were saved
during rescue efforts for three rubber dinghies and a small wooden
boat."

"Children who flee
to Europe from war-torn regions without their parents have no
clear way of escaping abusive or exploitative adults as there
are no unified policies in place to protect them, a European
Union agency said yesterday (21 December).

Conflicts and poverty
in the Middle East and Africa has forced some 1.4 million people
to head to Europe, fuelling the regions largest migrant
crisis since World War Two. According to the United Nations childrens
agency UNICEF, nearly one in 200 children in the world is a refugee."

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